ITHACA, NY — Portland, Oregon, native and Ithaca College audio production major Taylor Horton took first place honors in “Compose Open Space,” one of three social media contests sponsored by Ithaca College’s Finger Lakes Environment Film Festival (FLEFF). The judges — videomaker and activist Gretjen Clausing (USA) and pianist and educator Jairo Geronymo (Brazil and Germany) — also also named entries by Benjamin Andrew and Rob Logan for honorable mention.

A component of FLEFF 2009–10’s yearlong rollout of blogs, screenings and online user-generated events, “Compose Open Space” offered participants from around the globe the opportunity to explore Open Space, FLEFF’s 2009–10 program stream. To take part in “Compose Open Space,” contestants were invited to download FLEFF’s collection of audio stems produced by renowned film composer Robby Aceto, remix them into a soundscape that evokes open space and upload the result to a FLEFF-sponsored website. All winners received cash prizes.

Horton’s winning entry was entitled “Horton Open Spaces Remix” and is available at http://soundcloud.com/thorton2. Currently a senior in the Department of Television-Radio on the Roy H. Park School of Communications, she is working toward a career in film scoring and composition.

The honorable mention awardees are:

Benjamin Andrew for “Transmission,” available at http://soundcloud.com/treeline/open-space-treeline-mix. An Ithaca native, he is currently a visual artist, writer and musician in New York City. His work intersects technology, the handmade and the myth of authentic experience in a mediated life. For more information, visit http://www.benjaminandrew.net.

Rob Logan for “Open Space,” available at http://www.mediafire.com/?9yecofbf6vggy7p#1. A 2010 graduate of Ithaca College, Logan is a keyboardist for a progressive rock band in Miami, Florida. Although his degree is in business administration, he finds his passion for music a better lifestyle alternative than a career in business.

Judges for “Compose Open Space”

Gretjen Clausing has been a programmer, video maker and activist in the Philadelphia media arts community since 1989. She is cocreator and producer of the television show “Big Tea Party,” which received the Festival of Independents “Best Documentary Prize” at the 2001 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema. A juror and panelist for festivals in the Philadelphia area, Clausing is a founding member of the Philadelphia Coalition for Public Access, a grass roots group organizing to get public access television activated in Philadelphia. She graduated from Ithaca College in 1986 with a bachelor’s in cinema and photography.

Jairo Geronymo is a Brazilian pianist and educator currently living in Germany. He has taught piano at Pacific Lutheran University (Washington State), Western Washington University and Ithaca College, and is currently at the Leo Kestenberg Musikschule in Berlin. A winner of many competitions in Brazil and the United States, he performs as a recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral soloist with numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the Sao Paulo State Symphony, Brazilian Symphony, Northwest Sinfonietta and Seattle’s Eastside Symphony.

For more information on “Compose Open Spaces” and FLEFF 2009–10, visit /fleff/. Major funding for FLEFF Open Spaces 2009–10 was provided by Ithaca College’s Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies and the Park Foundation.

Launched in 1997, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival was an outreach project from the Center for the Environment at Cornell University. In 2005 the festival moved permanently to Ithaca College, where it is housed in the Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies as a program to link intellectual inquiry and debate to larger global issues.